Chewing gum is a global industry, with products manufactured in a country or countries being exported and sold in substantial amounts to distributors, retailers and, ultimately, consumers located in other countries. The international marketing of chewing gum benefits both consumers and manufacturers. Consumers benefit from having increasing numbers of products and brands to choose from, both domestic and foreign. Manufacturers benefit from the larger potential geographical markets which international marketing can bring.
Along with benefits, international marketing also poses special problems for chewing gum manufacturers. A manufacturer who exports chewing gum to a foreign country has to pay significant shipping costs and import duties, both of which can be based on the weight, volume and/or value of the exported chewing gum products. Also, the exporting manufacturer must tailor its products to cater to special tastes and preferences of the foreign consumers, some of which can be relatively unique to a given consumer group. Often, the exporter faces competition from one or more local chewing gum manufacturers who pay much lower shipping costs and no import duties, and who are keenly familiar with the tastes and preferences of the local communities.
Chewing gum base concentrates have been considered as a way of reducing some of the import duties and shipping costs. The base portion of chewing gum typically contains certain components or blends of components which distinguish the particular chewing gum base from other chewing gum bases, including gum bases offered by various competitors of a particular manufacturer. These include, for example, specific types of elastomer, elastomer plasticizer, wax and softener, in specific combinations and at specific concentrations. The base portion of a chewing gum also contains components such as fillers, colorants, whiteners and other miscellaneous ingredients which are quite standard and which are locally available at many, if not virtually all destination points. Concentrates, which are sometimes referred to as masterbatches, typically include those base ingredients which distinguish a chewing gum base or manufacturer from others, allowing the more standard ingredients to be blended locally in the country of destination.
French Patent Application 2,635,441 discloses a gum base concentrate containing up to about 85 weight percent polymer in addition to mineral fillers and plasticizers. The polymer is a high molecular weight elastomer having a numerical molecular weight of at least 220,000 and a molecular weight by weight of at least 450,000.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,962, issued to del Angel, discloses an elastomer.resin master batch which is formed by mixing a finely ground ester gum resin with a latex elastomer to form an emulsion, coagulating the emulsion using sodium chloride and sulfuric acid, separating the coagulated solid crumbs from the liquid phase, washing the solid crumbs and removing the excess water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,320, issued to Koch et al., discloses a two stage process for preparing a chewing gum base. In the first stage, a solid elastomer, an elastomer solvent and an oleaginous plasticizer are combined and mixed together under conditions of high shear. In the second stage, a hydrophobic plasticizer, a non-toxic vinyl polymer and an emulsifier are added to the mixture and mixed using high shear.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,274, issued to Mackay et al., discloses a chalk-free chewing gum base containing particles of free saccharin acid and fruit acid dispersed in a blend of elastomer, hard wax, elastomer solvent and hydrophilic detackifier.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,169, issued to Reggio et al., discloses a filler-free bubble gum base which contains about 0.5-25% elastomer, about 50-85% ester gum resin, about 1-25% plasticizing agent, about 0-10% softener and about 1-20% waxes, all based on the weight of the gum base. The plasticizing agent, which is characterized in the reference as "unique", includes fatty acids such as oleic acid, lauric acid, lactic acid, isostearic acid, caprylic acid, capric acid or stripped cocoa; glycerol esters of fatty acids such as mono-, di-, or tri-glycerol esters of any of the fatty acids listed above, with monooleate being preferred; polyglycerol esters of fatty acids having a hydrophilic/hydrophobic character of HLB 2 to 13, or sorbitan or polysorbate esters of fatty acids.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,820, issued to D'Amelia et al., discloses a gum base including a properly plasticized elastomer, a properly plasticized resin and, optionally, a third emulsifying/softening/texturizing component. The primary resin used is high molecular weight polyvinyl acetate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,064, issued to Ehrgott et al., discloses a chewing gum base which contains elastomer, elastomer solvent, hydrophobic plasticizers, hydrophilic plasticizer, oleaginous plasticizer, emulsifier, and, optionally, filler, pigment and other additives.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,395, issued to Cherukuri et al., discloses a chewing gum base containing elastomer, elastomer solvent, polyvinyl acetate, glycerol monostearate, wax and, optionally, filler.